


chapters and spectres

by capsap



Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, its just a different setting where it's just the Captain, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28092777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capsap/pseuds/capsap
Summary: The Captain dies at a badly run library instead and Havers is the new librarian. And, oh wow the captain is quite the homosexual.
Relationships: Lieutenant Havers (Ghosts TV 2019)/Original Male Character(s), The Captain/Lieutenant Havers (Ghosts TV 2019)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 41





	1. new man

**Author's Note:**

> a short introductory chapter because i struggle to focus on anything properly, sorry if anything was worded weirdly.

The Captain really wished he had died somewhere else, or at least in a different library. He was unfortunate enough to die at a small towns library that he watched become the neglected building it is now. Well, neglected might be the wrong term. The library was still open but the Captain was unsure that the town knew it was, due to the severe lack of visitors. 

After the insufficient librarian locked up the library for what the captain thought was for good. He was stuck doing his routine parameter checks, and sitting around in the small garden in silence, which he liked at first but after some time it became quite a chore to experience, until a snowy afternoon he heard the library door being bashed. 

Robbers. He rushed from the overgrown garden to the front holding his swagger stick in an attack position, ready to verbally harangue the supposed teen that was breaking into the building. 

“YOU! STOP YOU HOOLIG-” his tone and awkward stance faltered as he stood behind the glass doors staring at a middle aged man holding a rather heavy looking box trying to unlock the door with intense difficulty. 

“Jesus just open,” the new man swore at the door.

The Captain wondered why he didn't just put the box down, but he supposed the man didn't want the box to get wet because of the snow. But the stranger eventually managed to unlock a door with a muttered swear. The Captain's attack stance changed to something more defensive as he jogged along at a weird pace besides the man walking to place his box down.

“I say man! Who are you?!” He stood directly in front of the stranger trying to determine what his role is. “I demand you tell me!” It was at that moment the Captain remembered he was a ghost and any attempt at speaking the intruder was useless.

The alive man's phone rang, startling the Captain making him jump back alarmed slightly, still holding his swagger stick in defence.

“Havers speaking,” ah so he has a name, “yeah I arrived. Are we still up for the cinema tonight? I'm just going to set up a few things then I’ll know how much work I’ll have to do” Havers moved to open the box he was carrying as he listened intently to the person on the other end of the line, “great, I’ll see you later wish me luck hah!”

And with that he ended the call and looked around again. 

“Alright, lets sort this out,” Havers spoke to himself rather excitedly feeling proud about himself. His smile made his eyes twinkle, “but first: music”. He pulled out a record player from the relatively large box that was slightly soggy from the snow at the bottom and bagan looking for a plug. 

“Aha!” he plugged in the cord in the wall then rushed outside again to the car. The Captain jogged alongside to the outside, stopping right by the curb as he watched Havers go to a small green car and grab some vinyls. Quickly jogging back inside his nose turning red because of the cold.

The Captain inspected the pile of records Havers placed on the table, “What's ABBA?” The Captain questions right before Lay All Your Love On Me starts halfway through.

“Shit” Havers moves the needle to the edge of the vinyl as Dancing Queen starts up as Havers begins to move to the music. 

“Good Lord” the captain muttered worried he was going to be somehow overheard by the new librarian who had gone jogging out of the library to his car again to fetch a kettle and mugs.

As much as he felt conflicted about this new man called Havers, the Captain felt rather glad he seemed to want to be in the library. Besides what could he do. He could come to love this, _ABBA_. Havers seemed rather, well, nice? The Captain wasn’t quite sure of the word but he didn’t like the accompanying memories that came with watching Havers ‘dance’ around inspecting the library.


	2. i could never let you go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its a short one again but my attention span needs help and it is just a bit of a filler paragraph to set some things up kind of.  
> Also, Havers has a bf called Oliver oooo

Havers was new in town, he moved into a new flat with his boyfriend just out of London. A cheaper price and easy transport into the city. They met each other by Oliver going to the same coffee shop Havers was working at as he was finishing his degree.  A year of awkward flirting then a year of dates. Now they were together, well somewhat. Oliver worked in London and would go for business trips away once or twice a month, Havers didn't mind the time he would spend alone but being at home constantly was becoming a bore, so: librarian. 

Havers noticed the run down library while introducing himself to the town a building at the end of the high street that had the dirtiest windows he's seen in a while, Out of curiosity he asked around town then ended up emailing the librarian who ran the building alone, then as soon as he offered to volunteer there the person on the other line offered him their job… and he took it. Because why not and a change of scenery is what he needed. 

\-----

Opening the door to the library and looking inside properly felt rather strange. Something overwhelming by the fact that this is somewhat his responsibility now and he knew nothing of how it was run. Havers did think it to be rather strange how easily the library was passed into his care and how little the council cared about what was happening. 

Just by looking at the building Havers guess rather amiably that the building either didn't have cleaners or they just did not care for the building. The correct guess was the latter, though it could very easily have been the first. 

The mans phone buzzed in his coat pocket, 

“Havers speaking,”

“Havers, it’s Oliver. I was just wondering if you arrived at the library and if it was well?”

“yeah I arrived. Are we still up for the cinema tonight? I'm just going to set up a few things then I’ll know how much work I’ll have to do” 

“Great, I reckon I’ll be able to get off early today so I can come and meet you at the library. But just let me know love,”

“great, I’ll see you later wish me luck hah!”

\------

They went to a screening of some film they both didn't quite pay attention to, but it had a lot of robots and that was enough to lead Haver’s to stop paying attention.  Havers enjoyed the warmth Oliver had when they were sat on their sofa when they arrived, drinking wine listening to the radio in the background. They mutually enjoyed the lack of conversation.

“Ollie,”

“Hm,”

“It's a shame you have to work during Christmas, but I thought we could order a takeaway and watch a film when you return”

“Well, I was going to surprise you with this, but I managed to haggle the day off”

Havers looked down at Oliver with a wide grin of amusement, “oh really? You would take a day off for me?”

“Mm, but I’ve still got work tomorrow come on love lets sleep, you need that rest for the librarian activities you do now”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Captain will be in the next one! Leave a comment for my self esteem /j


	3. just one look

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote a longer chapter, still not great but still! i didn't proof read properly so sorry for any mistakes/ if anything doesn't make sense lmao

The Captain had been counting, Havers had been at the library for five days and twenty seven minutes, close to a week. He would leave at 1700 hours and had once stayed until 2030 hours and ordered a chinese takeaway, and Havers would always arrive at 0730 hours or 0600. And the new librarian hasn't suggested any behaviours that would suggest any changes to the schedule. 

He had also been… examining Havers. He hasn't had much of a bone to pick with the man as he seemed to care for the library and shed light into the dusty building. But, the librarian seems to like this ‘ABBA’, they had been rather annoying at first to listen to however Havers does change the vinyls to random jazz and classical music when he reads and does other work that the Captain doesn't quite know what it is. 

At least Havers was a form of company, even though he didn’t necessarily want to admit it he felt lonely at times, even if feeling less alone meant listening to “Lay All Your Love On Me” on repeat. But it was tolerable, besides the Captain enjoyed how Havers smiles and dances slightly when he was in a particular mood and sometimes, only sometimes, the Captain has hummed along too.

\--------

Today Havers was cleaning graffiti and gum under tables, he kept muttering how the cleaners should be doing this not him. But yet again Havers had no idea if the building even had cleaners and felt too awkward to ask the council about it.

The snow was still sticking around outside but Havers seemed determined to get rid of the extensive amounts of graffiti curated outside the library. So he went and brought graffiti remover and grabbed a scrub brush and went to work on it, taking breaks inside to warm his hands and have some tea. The Captain changed from standing next to Havers giving small personal commentary of “yes very good Havers” and “ah just a bit there.” then intently following the alive man to sit with him as he drank his tea. After all, he still barely knew the man and had to keep an eye on him.

Poor Havers managed to get a good amount of the graffiti cleaned off before the sunset making him move him inside to start under the tables, starting with his own desk. The Captain took himself to his favourite chair that he liked because he is able to see most of the outside, and around the room and let his brain get preoccupied as he learned the words to the ABBA Gold album playing again.

It had reached ‘Does Your Mother Know’ and Havers let out a short “Yes!” of excitement, then removing himself from under a desk to throw the hard clumps of gum in the bin while stepping along to the song, half dancing to the chorus as he begins to put his mug in the back sink.  He was packing up, the Captain knew his evening routine of moving things into a neat fashion, starting with washing his mug, for his start tomorrow. But it was slightly earlier than usual, this bummed the Captain out slightly as he secretly wished he could sit and watch Havers do is side steps while moving things around. 

The domestic, of sorts, scene got interrupted rather harshly on one of the higher chorus parts singing ‘does your mother know?’ with a new smug voice, 

“No I don’t think she does know I’m out” It was Oliver, though for the Captain it was a perfect stranger who wore a suit handsomely and a smug grin that angered him for some reason.

“Oh God! Oh, wow” Havers took a moment to process the fright, “Oliver! How come you’re not at work?” 

“Oh well, I claimed that there was a family emergency.”

Havers moved closer, the Captain stood up from his chair with his swagger stick ‘attack’ position and was confused by who the man was. A friend or relative, it could explain the casual nature that seemed to appear between the two. 

“Is there an emergency?” 

“Well, yes I haven’t had the chance to apologise for date night yet”

‘Date night?’ thought the Captain, ‘what did he mean? were they  _ like that _ ?’

Havers moved closer to kiss, “Well you can apologise now mm?” 

The Captain felt rather confused on why he was so annoyed about the performance going on in front of him. He moved quickly forward, lurching forward. Moving to stand in front of the mirror that rests by the entrance. 

“You! Y-you!  _ Oliver _ ? Oliver! You better back  _ away _ from Havers _right now_ or-”

“What the fuck! Who is that!” Oliver backed away from Havers who had his back to the mirror.

He was staring right at Captain the mirror. The Captain's eyes flashed open, he could see himself in the mirror also. 

“William, what the fu-!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i thought it would be fun to leave it where it is, but its still setting up stuff. for reference in the fic it is a few days before christmas.


	4. can't you hear me SOS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another short chapter, I just like keeping the events that happen separate

“William, what the fuck!”

“Good Lord!” The Captain watched himself disappear suddenly from the mirror, as Havers turned around to look at where Oliver was pointing. He look genuinely concerned for Oliver and assuringly held him as he walked him to sit down muttering,

“Oliver, what, what was it? Just tell me, are you okay?”

He sat Oliver in the Captain's chair. The Captain noticed that they moved and looked away from the mirror where he once saw himself. 

‘Why did it have to be  _ his _ chair?

Once Oliver was sat in the chair, overly stunned and reasonably freaked out, Havers moved quickly to turn off ABBA that was still playing lightly in the background. Once it was off the silence seemed to allow room for thoughts.

“Look Oliver, what was it?”

“I saw this… man, and h-he was like an army man. Right out of a photo from the world wars! God, it can’t be my imagination,” He stood up to examine the mirror and where the captain once stood, the ghost dodged Oliver's quick paces as he stared quizzically into the mirror that, “William, please what in hell was that about?”

The Captain’s gaze changed from looking at Oliver to Havers, the soft gaze that Havers looked through the Captain towards Oliver managed to make his heart drop. The caring look wasn’t meant for him and the Captain hated that. Why, why did he have to have a sick feeling in his stomach. He was dead for heaven's sake! 

After some time of the Captain looking at Havers looking right through him at the back of his boyfriend who was examining the mirror, chewing his gums.

“Oliver,” he moved forward, “look please there isn’t anything there dear.”

Havers was putting on his coat and grabbing his keys. No wait he is readying to leave,

‘He isn’t meant to leave yet 30 min until official closing that is what he always does, he leaves at 1700 hours and not any earlier. He has thirty minutes left. He never leaves early.’ thought the Captain, feeling unnecessarily panicked as he grasps his swagger stick firmer and twisting it around behind his back fighting the urge to curl up and hit his head like he d while he watches Havers try to bring Oliver to the door.

‘No he isn’t meant to go yet, we have thirty minutes left!’ The Captain didn’t move though even though Haver's early departure did arise a sense of panic.

“Ok Oliver, it’s fine let's just go home,” Havers had a firm grasp around Oliver's shoulder, probably because he feared the man was going to collapse while leaving, “We can sleep this off alright, I can pick up some chips on the way back alright?” 

Havers turned off the lights and locked the Library, thirty minutes early. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cap has still has his sexuality repressed. I also kind of very lightly wrote in that cap is autistic (i'm not great writing of it but it is just from my personal experience and uh how I imagine cap would handle it) so, it's meant to come across that way :)


	5. whats the name of the game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY a new chapter. It isnt much, acting like a filler chapter again. Moving the plot along and stuff.

Oliver seemed to of calmed a little bit after some hours any rambling of the ghost had ceased, he was sat on their bed looking blankly at the wall before Havers entered with their tea,  “Thank you El- William,” Havers moved out of the room to not hear the ‘thank you’ of Oliver, “Where're your tea's gonna get cold!” 

“Mm! Just one second!” Havers reappeared with a notepad and a pen, “Do you want to either try and draw the person you saw or just write the details, I kind of want to know what you saw” he smiled at his boyfriend staring up at him holding his tea,

“Well, I can just describe him and you can write it down or try and draw it if you really want to know,” Havers looked at him then settled cozily next to Oliver holding the notepad and pen ready for Oliver to start speaking.

“Go on then,”

“Oh yes. Right, well he looked to be middle aged i suppose. In an army outfit but not modern it looks like an army uniform from one of the world wars, it looked similar to that film we saw last year. What was it again?”

“1917?”

“Yes, that one, he had a moustache, I think. He looked really angry but he was staring at his kind of before he looked in the mirror then went away. You don’t think it was anything weird right? Like I first jumped to ghosts but you know, maybe I am just seeing things like I knocked my head earlier and my brain is playing trick. Oh No! Should I go to the hospital, I don’t want to spend the time I have away in a hospital.”

“Don’t worry Oliver,” Havers was writing what he had said down but his voice was present, “I am sure you are just tired and overworked you have been taking later and later shifts so this isn’t too surprising,” Oliver let out a puff of air at this and went to sip his tea, “that, or he was a _ ghost _ ” Havers put on a spooky voice.

“Wait you really think he could’ve been a ghost?!”

“Of course not! I am just joking, come on you know ghosts aren’t real. Now finish you’re tea you should try and get rest to stop seeing things”

\---------------

Havers left a bit later than usual, he thought it was best to spend a bit of extra time with Oliver since yesterday, just in case he showed any symptoms of… something. 

The Captain was waiting outside the library for a while, then at 0800 hours he retreated back inside, he was beginning to get uncomfortable sat on the curb, he could feel his knees stiffening which lead to a crack as he stood up, the Captain awkwardly bounced up and down on the balls of his feet trying to see through the windows. checking for Havers car. 

Finally at 0830 hours Havers arrived, he wore the same knit khaki green jumper from yesterday without a shirt underneath. He had his headphones in, humming some song the Captain knew nothing about. 

‘Finally’ the Captain thought, still feeling rather off by the new shift in schedule that the ‘yesterday incident’, as he called it, caused.

The new information of Havers  _ homosexuality _ concerned the Captain. Not in a particularly bad way but the feelings that the knowledge came along with, particularly made him stay awake during the night. Images of Havers kissing Oliver and sharing a bed distracted the Captain, it brought up a long forgotten emotion he couldn’t really understand. He was angered by the thought, but he didn’t feel anger towards Havers but more towards the situation. It was weird to say the least. 

The Captain wasn’t opposed to homosexuality, he was aware that it was  _ okay _ now as he was harassed with red posters, less than five years ago just before the library went into decline for worse, that read:

‘SOME PEOPLE ARE GAY. GET OVER IT!’

And another saying;

‘SOME GUYS MARRY GUYS. GET OVER IT!’

The latter properly informed the Captain on the nations stance on homosexuality and it seemed to be accepted. This was nice information as he had been a close friend and was marked down then arrested after the war, he was actually from the town the Captain died in. The poor chap never got his medals. 

The thought of the Captain actually being a homosexual, was something he had buried. A long time ago. The time that passed between the burial and his afterlife made the man avoidant of the thought. Avoiding it had been rather easy as he took it upon himself to do everything he could to keep as busy as he could. 

Havers had started working on the gum from under the table. Humming a tune the Captain couldn’t hear because of the earphones. It was going to be a quiet and dull day. Havers had put a calendar on his desk, he had been neatly crossing off days, the Captain was able to see that it was nearly christmas, this s

Around 1600 hours Havers received a call that made both him and the Captain jump slightly due to the quiet nature of the day. 

“Hello?”

“Hello, are you William Havers living at 108?”

“Uh, can I ask who this is first?”

The call ended. 

“What the hell?” Havers muttered feeling rather rushed to make sure everything was alright at home. An hour early again. He will have to make up for lost time.  The Captain was still rather unsure of what was going on however he was sat opposite Havers at his desk, he couldn’t quite pick out why Havers was going for his coat and keys he was even leaving his mug.  The man leaving out of schedule again distressed the Captain. His leg was bouncing up and down which he ignored to focus on Havers who was about to leave.

“Havers?” the call out for the man was softly spoken, concern coming across his voice. He had hoped he could hear him speak.

When he arrived at the building he had to rush up the flights of stairs. God why did they have to be top floor. When he had reached the front door a woman was standing at it. She looked as if she had been crying, but not anymore. She was filled with rage. 

“Uh, excuse me. Can I help you?”

“You!”

“Uh, sorry what?”

“YOU!” her voice had raised, “YOU CAN’T HELP ANYTHING YOU HAVE RUINED EVERYTHING FOR A START!”

What the-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should be posting more often again, i can fit more of Cap and Havers in.

**Author's Note:**

> man I love ABBA  
> thank you for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated :)


End file.
